


Across the Universe

by kaylaber1



Series: Star Trekkin [2]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M, it's because I love her, more oc fanfic from me?, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 03:34:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18044672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylaber1/pseuds/kaylaber1
Summary: Despite their differences, Rowena Gillespie and Leonard McCoy had stayed friends long after they'd been study buddies in xenobiology. Why, exactly, she couldn't say, but it was nice to have a friend on board.





	1. Chapter 1

Rowena had dyed her hair pink. Others might’ve combatted the crippling loneliness or the solemn nature of their position with a change of scenery or a bit of time in the rec room. Rowena dyed her hair pink. The less time she spent interacting with the crew of this ship, the better, she thought as she moved a frizzy pink strand away from where it had been tickling her nose as she bent over her latest autopsy report. She hears the door open, and recognizes the footsteps immediately.

 

“Tell me it’s not another one.” She says flatly, not looking up from her report. 

 

“It’s not another one.” McCoy responds, equally flat. He leans in her doorway casually. “What’sa matter, Gillespie? I thought you  _ liked  _ your cadavers?”

 

“I’m not in the mood, Leonard.” She says poisonously, still trying to concentrate on the task before her. 

 

“You dyed your hair?”

 

Rowena groans, pushing back from her desk with a sigh. She turns in her chair to face the surgeon, arms folded across her chest and irritation written plainly across her face. 

 

“Yes, I dyed my hair. You still look like you did two days ago. Small talk over.” She says. “State your business or let me get back to mine.”

 

“Follow-up on Stevens.” McCoy says, taking the hint mercifully. 

 

Rowena bristles visibly at the name. Stevens had been at the academy with her. A promising young nurse. Full of vigor. She’d come into the morgue yesterday evening in a zipped black bag. Rowena had dyed her hair. 

 

“Autopsy report’s almost finished. Her parents and Fiance have been notified.” She says stiffly. 

 

“Anything unusual?”

 

“Aside from the knife wound? No. Are we done here?”

 

“Not quite.”

 

The way he said it made Rowena want to roll her eyes. He moved from her doorway to the other chair at her desk, sitting down and making himself at home in her office. 

 

“Drastic personal changes, unusually bitter towards friends, reclusive,-”

 

“If you’re just gonna sit there and list symptoms at me, you can go.”

 

“Rowena, you knew Stevens, didn’t you? From the academy?”

 

“Yeah.” She sighs. “Yeah I did. Bright girl. Surprisingly easy to put back together again. Can barely tell the sutures are there. I dare say she’d be ready for an open casket. What are you getting at, Leonard?”

 

“I’m worried about you.” He states plainly, blowing right past her bit of graveside humor, which she knows he hates. 

 

“I’m fine, Leonard.” 

 

“Ya see, you can say that all you want and I’m still not gonna believe it.” 

 

Rowena sighs, putting her head in her hands. There wasn’t gonna be any other way around this. Leonard McCoy had always been just as stubborn as she was, and as her senior officer, he really had the upper hand in these situations. Still, it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to go down kicking and screaming. 

 

“What do you want me to do, Leo? Tell you I’m not okay? That things got too real and now I’m drowning in misery? Tell you how I scooped out my classmate’s guts like I was making a jack-o-lantern? Fall into your arms sobbing and telling you that you’ve been right all along?” She snaps, sitting forward in her chair. 

 

“If it makes you feel better.” 

 

“It doesn’t.” 

 

“What would?” 

 

She looks up at him, eyes suddenly lost in that arresting blue gaze of his. Rowena...didn’t know how to answer that. She didn’t know how to come back from this. What had happened in this morgue had shaken her to her very core, and the most ridiculous part was that she was more frightened by the fact that he  _ knew _ than she had been unzipping that body bag. 

 

“I’m your  _ Doctor _ , Rowena. It’s my  _ job _ to make you feel better.” 

 

“I….I don’t know, Leo. I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t think that anyone can.” 

 

“Ro...surely you knew this would happen at some point?” 

 

“I did. I just… I wasn’t prepared. I’m still not prepared. I don’t think I ever will be.” 

 

“That’s okay.” 

 

She shouldn’t. She knows she shouldn’t. That this goes against every professional standard she ought to hold herself to. That once she finally takes the step over that line she’s been toeing since the academy, there’s no going back. But the way he talks to her, and his gentle eyes and unwavering patience are drawing her. She’ll say it was the emotional distress, and Leonard won’t dispute it, but they’ll both know better. 

 

“Leo I…...I need you.” 

 

And what a horrible, vulnerable thing it was.  _ Needing _ . But her distaste for the feeling didn’t make it any less true. She can’t look him in the eye as he walks around her desk and squats down next to her.

 

“That’s okay too, Ro.”


	2. Chapter 2

They didn’t screw. Hadn’t even kissed. She could practically feel her younger self calling her a prude, but the Rowena Gillespie of the here and now was grateful for it. It seemed her academy days just kept coming back to haunt her this week. First Stevens’s death, now McCoy holding her tight as she cried into his shoulder… God she needed to get her shit together.

  
The morgue was spotless. She knew this. She was the one who’d disinfected the damn place to begin with. But the last thing she wanted was to go take a lunch break. So, Rowena got on her hands and knees and scrubbed the floors the old fashioned way, once more, just in case. After all, you couldn’t get a floor too clean, especially not after the things this one had seen. She wipes away the light sheen of sweat that’s developed on her forehead with the back of her arm, sighing as she sits back on her heels. They’re starcharting now. Nothing dangerous about that. It should be a painfully slow few weeks for her, so her surprise when she hears the doors slide open is completely understandable.

  
“Ya know, you don’t have to do that. The UV lamps are much more effective, and you won’t put runs in your hose.”

  
“Thanks for the advice, Doctor McCoy, but I don’t remember askin for it.” She groans, not bothering to turn to face him.

  
“Oh so it’s ‘Doctor McCoy’ today, then, huh?” he says, leaning against an autopsy bench so that he can see her face.

  
Rowena ignores him in favor of scrubbing at a spot she knows is a stain and never going to come out. Really, he’d been the last person on a long list of people she didn’t want to see today. The CMO made her feel things. Disgusting, questionable, fluttery things that she didn’t want to think or act upon. He always had.

  
“You mad at me?” He asks, the faintest hint of a pout in his voice. Rowena rolls her eyes and looks up at him for the first time since he walked in.

  
“Why would I be mad at you? You got a reason for me to be?”

  
“Well ‘cause I made ya talk about your feelings with me, of course. You and I both know you’d rather be an emotionally constipated disaster.”

  
“When did you get to know me so well?” She smirks, finally standing off of the floor. The cleaning was only a distraction, anyway.

  
“Eh, somewhere between Anat and Phys and bein’ stationed here together. Besides, ya don’t exactly have to be a genius to figure out that someone who shotguns energy drinks has unresolved personal issues.”

  
“I don't shotgun energy drinks anymore.”

  
“That's not my point.”

  
She sighs, crossing her arms. Damn him and his clever mind and his pretty face and his electric blue eyes.

  
“I'm not mad at you, Leonard.”

  
“Oh good, cause you're about to be.” he says, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  
“What's that supposed to mean?” she scowls

  
“Rowena Gillespie, as your Doctor and your superior officer, I'm putting you on mandatory personal leave.”

  
Her eyes widen in shock, before immediately narrowing in outrage.

  
“Wh- How- YOU CAN'T JUST-”

  
“Hush. After last night and the way you've been acting today, I know you're struggling. You need time to sort out what you're feeling, and we're just starcharting for the next few weeks. It won't put you behind, and you'll come out feelin much more like your normal, prickly self.”

  
“...We aren't friends anymore, Leonard.” she says defeatedly.

  
He laughs, placing a hand on her shoulder, and Rowena can feel her heart catch in her throat. She was just as bad now as she'd been 5 years ago.

  
“You've said that before, Ro.”

  
“I mean it this time, Leo.”

 


End file.
